6 Tips for Leveraging Open Source Technology

Create a Long-Term Contribution Strategy

The success of open source projects depends on companies providing long-term tools and solutions, so try not to invest in isolation. There are several questions to ask during the planning process: What problem is being solved by this contribution? What are the long-term implications for the business? Will the project exist under the same terms year after year? Establishing your own code of conduct before taking an internal project public will help set clear expectations and goals. You're bound to run into issues eventually, so be sure to document everything, from setup instructions to troubleshooting to the code of conduct.

To understand the impact that open source technology has made on the enterprise, one need only look to the numbers. With over 35 million GitHub repositories, 1,961,460 lines of code on Hadoop and over a thousand Apache Spark contributors, the open source ecosystem is home to some of the world's most innovative and impressive tech collaborations. With some of the biggest names in tech leading the charge — Apple's Swift programming language, IBM's machine learning technology SystemML and Facebook's Relay JavaScript framework were all made public in the past year — open source technology is set to change the way we process, stream and analyze data.

In this slideshow, IBM VP of Big Data and Analytics on z, Dinesh Nirmal, and IBM VP of Offerings, Big Data and Analytics, Ritika Gunnar, outline several tips to help enterprises make the most of their open source strategy.

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